Sir Vince Cable was in Watford yesterday to take a tour of the ongoing intu shopping development.

The Liberal Democrats leader was accompanied by Watford’s deputy mayor Peter Taylor for the visit.

The intu development will include around ten new stores, including a Debenhams and a Superdry, alongside an IMAX cinema. The whole project is expected to be completed at the beginning of 2019.

After the tour, Sir Vince discussed his party’s position in the town and said he was “confident” that the Liberal Democrats could challenge once again in the parliamentary election like they did up until 2010.

“In the past Watford has been one of our target parliamentary seats and I’m confident that will happen again.”

The Liberal Democrats lost almost half of the votes in the 2017 parliamentary election in Watford than in 2015, while Labour saw their support rise by just over 10,000 votes to 24,000.

Sir Vince acknowledged Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s influence but believes support that the Lib Dems have enjoyed in the past will return.

He said: “There was a surge of support for Mr Corbyn. Many people who voted Labour were young people who were undoubtedly energised but many of them thought they were voting for a party and leader who supported remaining in the EU.

“I think there will be a lot of dissolution with young people towards Labour next time round. A lot of support we enjoy will come back to us. I will be setting out an agenda over the next year or so designed to appeal many of the young people who have bene going to Labour recently.”

Sir Vince described Watford as a “dynamic town” and made reference to a number of projects that is helping the area to grow.

“There is the Metropolitan line extension, this shopping development, and we have the rebuilding and extension of the hospital which the council have been able to facilitate. This town has a good council and good mayor.”

The leader paid tribute to outgoing mayor Dorothy Thornhill, who has held her role since 2002.

“We are very proud of Dorothy. It’s not often that our party have a directly elected mayor but Dorothy bucked the trend and has done a really good job. I’m looking forward to working with Dorothy as part of my parliamentary team.

“I’m confident that Peter will continue the tradition when the mayoral elections come round,” Sir Vince added.

Sir Vince finished by discussing Brexit and his hopes for a second referendum, on the final vote.

In November, the leader suggested that there was a “20 per cent” chance of Brexit not happening.

Yesterday, he admitted that a deal does look likely.

“It does look like the government is going to get a deal but the kind of deal they are going to get is not a very good one. There will little benefits to a number of industries.

“I think we will see a growing demand to have a final vote on the outcome and I noticed Nigel Farage came out to support our view that there needs to be a referendum on the final vote.”